The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Burton Latimer
Making the love of God known in our community
Week commencing 29th March 2020
(The Fifth Sunday of Lent)
Dear friends,
Welcome to this week’s sheet. As we enter into another period of isolation the ministry team and I want to reassure all of you that you are in our daily prayers. Many of you are home alone and can I urge you to be in touch on the telephone or via email if you would value a little chat or if you are in need. As last week we are providing these Sunday’s readings and the Psalms for each day and I do encourage you to use them in your quiet time to draw strength from our Lord. This Sunday, from 9am, I will be recording a service for you that will be available on the church website. It would be lovely for as many of you as are able to join in. An order of service will have come with this sheet if you can print it. You will need a candle, something to light it with and some bread and a glass of wine or grape juice and this sheet. If that’s not possible please be assured you are being thought about and prayed for during the service. I want to leave you with a verse that I have found particularly helpful this week and hope it encourages you too. Jesus said, ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, I do not give as the world gives, do NOT let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid’ John 14:27
Every blessing….Jez J
Daily psalms
Sunday, 29th March – Psalm 86
Monday, 30th March – Psalm73
Tuesday, 31st March – Psalm 35
Wednesday, 1st April – Psalm 55
Thursday, 2nd April – Psalm 40
Friday, 3rd April – Psalm 22
Saturday, 4th April – Psalm 23
Prayers
Keep us, good Lord, under the shadow of your mercy in this time of uncertainty and distress. Sustain and support the anxious and fearful, and lift up all who are brought low; that we may rejoice in your comfort knowing that nothing can separate us from your love in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
Heavenly Father, in these difficult times, we pray for our
church and its leaders, as
they try to do the right thing to protect us from the effects of the
coronavirus.
We pray for all those in our congregation, for those whom we love, our
families,
friends and neighbours and we ask you to hold them close and keep them safe.
Amen
We pray to the Lord, who is our refuge and stronghold.
For the health and well-being of
our nation, that all who are fearful and anxious
may be at peace and free from worry:
For the isolated and housebound, that we may be alert to their needs,
and care for them in their vulnerability:
For our homes and families, our young people, and all in any kind of need or
distress:
For a blessing on our local community, that our neighbourhoods may be places of
trust and friendship, where all are known and cared for:
We commend ourselves, and all for whom we pray,
to the mercy and protection of God.
Amen.
Encouraging hymnal words
Text from Matthew 11, music Geoffrey Nobes
(1) Come to me, all you who are weary,
come to me all you who are sad,
take my yoke,
for my burden is easy,
learn from me,
I will make you glad
For I am gentle and humble of heart,
and you’ll find rest,
rest for your souls,
for I am gentle’
gentle and humble of heart
and you will find rest for your souls
Our Prayer List
In company with the other churches in the town, each week we pray for a different street: this week is Bridle Road
We remember those who are ill or need our prayers at this time, especially:
Heather, Carter Lewis, Sarah Pattison, Ian Staires, Daphne Dacre, the Houstons
We pray for the souls of those who have died:
Duncan Howard, Geoff Headland, Margaret Phillips
We remember those whose anniversaries of death are at this time:
Doug Batey
Collect
Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen
3
First Reading
Romans 8.5-11
Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
Gospel
John 11.1-45
1A certain man was
ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2Mary
was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her
hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3So the sisters sent a message to
Jesus, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ 4But when Jesus heard it, he
said, ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ 5Accordingly,
though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6after having
heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he
was.
7Then after this he
said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ 8The disciples
said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you
going there again?’ 9Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours of
daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the
light of this world. 10But those who walk at night stumble, because
the light is not in them.’ 11After saying this, he told them, ‘Our
friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.’ 12The
disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.’ 13Jesus,
however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was
referring merely to sleep. 14Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus
is dead. 15For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may
believe. But let us go to him.’ 16Thomas, who was called the Twin,
said to his fellow-disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with
him.’
17When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ 23Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ 24Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ 25Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.
Those who believe in me, even though they die, will
live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do
you believe this?’ 27She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you
are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’
28When she had said
this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, ‘The
Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ 29And when she heard it,
she got up quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet come to
the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31The
Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and
go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb
to weep there. 32When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she
knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother
would not have died.’ 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who
came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply
moved. 34He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him,
‘Lord, come and see.’ 35Jesus began to weep. 36So the
Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ 37But some of them said, ‘Could
not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from
dying?’
38Then Jesus, again
greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying
against it. 39Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister
of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has
been dead four days.’ 40Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that
if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ 41So they took
away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for
having heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I have said
this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you
sent me.’ 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice,
‘Lazarus, come out!’ 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet
bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to
them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’
45Many of the Jews
therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
For many, opening the church for prayer this week has given many of us comfort and stability but, sadly, for the time being, that too has stopped as we all do our part to protect each other.
Internet Order of Service for use at home.
Welcome
Lighting of the candle(s)
Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord.
All Amen.
The Collect
The minister prays the collect on your weekly sheet
All Amen.
Reading
Please see the weekly sheet.
This is the word of the Lord.
All Thanks be to God.
Reflection
Invitation to Confession
The minister
You then, who truly and earnestly repent of your sins,
and are in love and charity with your neighbours,
and intend to lead a new life,
following the commandments of God,
and walking from this day forward in his holy ways:
draw near with faith,
and take this holy sacrament to your comfort;
and make your humble confession to almighty God.
Confession
All Father eternal, giver of light and grace,
we have sinned against you and against our neighbour,
in what we have thought,
in what we have said and done,
through ignorance, through weakness,
through our own deliberate fault.
We have wounded your love,
and marred your image in us.
We are sorry and ashamed,
and repent of all our sins.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
who died for us,
forgive us all that is past;
and lead us out from darkness
to walk as children of light.
Amen
Absolution
The minister says
Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
who in his great mercy
has promised forgiveness of sins
to all those who with heartfelt repentance and true faith turn to him:
have mercy on you,
pardon and deliver you from all your sins,
confirm and strengthen you in all goodness,
and bring you to everlasting life,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
All Amen.
Prayers of Intercession
Please refer to the weekly sheet
Eucharist Prayer
Have your bread a wine ready
The Lord be with you
All and also with you.
Father, on the night before he died,
Jesus shared a meal with his friends.
He took the bread, and thanked you.
He broke it, and gave it to them, saying:
Take and eat; this is my body, given for you.
Do this to remember me.
After the meal, Jesus took the cup of wine.
He thanked you, and gave it to them, saying:
Drink this, all of you.
This is my blood,
the new promise of God’s unfailing love.
Do this to remember me.
Jesus Christ has died.
All Jesus Christ has died.
Jesus Christ is risen.
All Jesus Christ is risen.
Jesus Christ will come again.
All Jesus Christ will come again.
Father, as we bring this bread and wine,
and remember his death and resurrection,
send your Holy Spirit,
that we who share these gifts, though apart but together now in you,
may be fed by Christ’s body and his blood.
Pour your Spirit on us
that we may love one another,
work for the healing of the earth,
and share the good news of Jesus,
as we wait for his coming in glory.
For honour and praise belong to you, Father,
with Jesus your Son, and the Holy Spirit:
one God, for ever and ever.
All Amen
We take communion.
Prayer after Communion
Post communion prayer available on your sheet
The Lord’s Prayer
Let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
All Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Blessing
The peace of God,
which passes all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds
in the knowledge and love of God,
and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord;
and the blessing of God almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always.
All Amen.